The Heat is On
A Look Inside Your Building's Heating System

There are worse places to be than New York City in the
winter — Minneapolis, for example, or Anchorage. Thanks to the North
Atlantic current, the Big Apple doesn’t tend to freeze as hard as
some other northern cities, but it still gets darned cold, and if your
building suffers from heating problems, darned cold is cold enough. Most
managers and board members tend to leave heating issues to their supers or
building maintenance staff, but when the pipes are hissing and residents
are up in arms and suffering from hypothermia, it can be helpful to
understand what the problem is and how it might be fixed.

The Hot Zone

Even in a small building, producing enough heat to keep
everybody comfortable takes quite a bit of fuel. That fuel can be oil, gas,
or electric. The vast majority of New York City’s buildings are
steam-heated, meaning that oil or gas is heated in a boiler and, the
resultant steam distributed throughout the building.

“Electric heat needs the least
maintenance,” says Peter Grech of the New York Superintendents
Technical Association (STA). “And with electricity, there are no
leaks and no mess. In most cases, problems with electric heat don’t
affect the entire building—if something goes wrong, the heat usually
goes out in just one apartment at a time. So maintenance-wise, electric
heat is a no brainer, but it costs so much to produce, it’s rarely
used. Even if you take into consideration the maintenance, leaks and
repairs involved with steam heat, electric heat would still cost
more.”

And that’s why most of us have big, hulking
boilers in our basements. In the most typical New York apartment building
setup, fuel—usually oil or natural gas—is ignited in the
boiler’s combustion chamber and produces hot gasses, which then pass
through metal “fire tubes,” heating water on the other side of
the chamber and producing steam. The steam then rises naturally through the
building’s heat pipes and risers, into individual radiators, heating
them up and making everything cozy.

Burning fossil fuels for heat and hot water comes with
its own set of maintenance challenges, however. And as anybody who’s
ever shivered through even one January night without heat knows, when
there’s a problem with the boiler, it’s a big problem.

More often than not, boiler problems are due to poor
maintenance. According to Michael Costelloe of Teitelbaum Inc. in Queens,
regular boiler maintenance is the key to minimizing boiler problems. On the
off-season, it’s important to have a professional boiler maintenance
company come in and do a full cleaning of the tubes and the combustion
chamber. It’s also a good idea to do a regular inspection of the
burner, and all the instruments and controls on the boiler to make sure
they’re all in working order and haven’t been compromised by
soot and grime.

“As hot gasses are passing through the tubes,
they’re also bringing smoke and soot with them,” adds
Costelloe. “The soot accumulates on the inside walls of the tubes and
acts as an insulator.”

While most of us think of insulation as a good thing,
when it comes to boilers, it’s very much unwanted. An accumulation of
sooty insulation reduces the efficiency with which the hot gasses pass
through the tubes to heat the surrounding water, forcing the burner to fire
more frequently to produce adequate heat, which in turn means that it has
to burn more fuel to do its job. According to Dick Koral, who is also with
the STA, and the director of New York City Technical College’s
Apartment House Institute, “Soot accumulations of as little as 1/32
of an inch will raise your fuel bill by about two percent.”

Multiply that figure by the projected 30 to 50 percent
increases in heating fuel costs this winter, and you can quickly see the
implications: an overactive burner will be a significant financial drain on
your building. So if you haven’t had a full boiler inspection
recently, says Koral, do it now.

To be certain that your boiler is working properly
throughout the year, Costelloe recommends a major cleaning in the spring or
summer and supplemental cleanings—which include vacuuming the tubes
as well—once a month during the winter months.

“When we go [into the combustion chamber] and
clean it out,” says Costelloe, “it gives the superintendent the
opportunity to check the heat-insulating material that lines the chamber,
which is usually firebrick or plastic fire clay. Because of the intense
heat, the bricks start to break apart over time. Major cleanings allow us
to do a visual inspection to see how the brick is doing.”

Getting Steamed

A common complaint is the sudden, loud, often startling
banging and clanging that echoes along steam pipes in the heating season.

First of all, says Costelloe, the pipes leading from
the boiler room to the apartments must be well-insulated. If they’re
not, “That’s not good for a few reasons: First, you’re
losing the heat in the boiler room that should be getting into the
apartments. Secondly, as that steam is rising, it’s automatically
starting to cool. That means you have a condensation problem before it even
gets to the radiators.”

That sounds innocuous, but it sets the stage for all
the noise—what’s known in the industry as “water
hammer.” When water condenses and isn’t evacuated out of the
steam system, it sits in the pipes, says Grech. When hot steam hits the
water, there’s a drastic change in temperature and pressure, and
droplets of collected water shoot against the sides of the pipes like
bullets, resulting in loud bangs, clangs, and pings.

According to Grech, all the racket is more than just a
nuisance. “Contrary to the popular opinion,” says Grech,
“water hammer is not a normal condition. You can live with it, but
over time it’s harmful to the pipes. The solution to the banging
depends on what type of system exists in the building, and solving the
problem means doing some detective work—does the banging begin at
steam start-up, during steam distribution, or at shut-off? The answer can
dictate how the underlying insulation problem is approached.”

Is it Hot in Here, Or is it Just Me?

Another common heating complaint come wintertime is
that the building is either too hot or too cold, says Vincent Tolins of
Pro-Tech Plumbing in Whitestone. Sometimes, it’s
both—everyone’s teeth are chattering on the third floor, while
up on six, everybody’s opening their windows because it’s so
warm.

“When winter hits, lots of prewar buildings have
problems with uneven steam distribution,” Tolins says. “Some
apartments will get plenty of steam—maybe even too much—and
others won’t get enough.” An engineer can evaluate the
situation in your building and inform you how to repair it.

According to Bill Jebaily of Brooklyn’s
Aggressive Heating, the solution is often a simple matter of adjusting some
equipment. “Your heat timer—which is commonly used in
multi-family dwellings—could be out of adjustment. A technician
should come in and check the settings and make adjustments to the
return-line sensor, the reverse-acting pressure control, or even the
weather-head outside the building that senses the temperature and sends the
signal to the heat timer itself to switch on or off. There’s a lot
more to a heat timer than just that, but those are some key elements to
look at.”

Poor heat distribution is the most common cause of high
energy bills, adds Koral. If your heating system is working overtime to
maintain comfortable temperatures in the apartments that tend to be chilly
while the others are overheated, the cost to your building is significant.

“For every one degree that the average
temperature in the building is above, say 72 degrees,” Koral warns,
“the building’s fuel consumption rises about three percent. If,
the overheating is five degrees, your heating bill is about 15 percent
higher than it should be.”

Hot Tips

The first line of defense is your super and building
staff. “Building staff and superintendents should know their system
very well,” advises Grech. “They should take courses or
workshops to keep up with the latest techniques, equipment and
technology.”

And applying a little technology doesn’t hurt
either. “It’s easier to detect problems if you have
state-of-the-art thermostatic equipment, of course,” says Jebaily.
“But older equipment isn’t necessarily bad. If the equipment is
working, you don’t have to change it just because it’s old. If
you have a piece of equipment that’s giving you problems and being
inefficient, however, you must replace it. Given the cost of fuel today,
whether it’s natural gas or oil, it’s cost prohibitive to not
get the fullest efficiency out of your equipment.”

One option for upgrading your equipment is to install
heat-sensing devices on walls in residential units. The small sensors send
a steady stream of temperature information to a main computer, which in
turn is connected to the boiler/burner system. The computer processes the
information and cycles on and off as needed until the average temperature
of the sensors reaches a preset comfort level. At that point, the computer
instructs the boiler to cycle off. The cycle runs 24/7, maintaining
comfortable temperatures throughout the building.

Prices for computerized heating system components start
at about $4,500 for the most basic upgrades and go up, depending on the
number of options and sensors a building chooses to install. According to
some companies, the new boiler monitoring systems can save buildings
anywhere from 15 to more than 30 percent on heating costs
—potentially paying for itself over the first couple of years.

“The bottom line is this,” says Jebaily,
“three years ago, heating oil was under a dollar a gallon. It was
easier not to worry about getting peak efficiency out of your equipment.
Today, with heating oil in the two-dollar-a-gallon range, it’s much
more cost-effective to spend the money on upgrading your equipment to get
that efficiency. The payback is much quicker.”

According to Grech, “The most common heating
problem is really just lack of knowledge and is lack of money invested in
maintaining the system. Once your super or resident manager knows what to
do and there is money to do it, there shouldn’t be any huge
problems—just minor glitches.”

Michael McDonough is a freelance writer and Hannah Fons
is Associate Editor of The Cooperator.

7
Comments

Here in Chicago, I do light building maintenance in some older buildings. It's amazing how little building owners know about steam heat systems. I see the windows open in winter and I know it's a steam-heat building. I don't imagine it's really hard to get the heat distributed evenly. Problem is poeple just turn off at the mention of technology. If it's more than turning a switch on or off, they don't want to hear it. Try to explain and people just tune out. These are some really politically correct people who would recycle every scrap of tin foil. Never mind about saving a thousand dollars worth of heating fuel.

This article is really interesting and enlightening. For six years I have been cold every winter here in my steam-heated rental apartment in Chicago and have been complaining. The reason they don't turn the heat up is because some people are so hot that they open the windows and for the landlord that is an indicator that it's warm enough here. The manager doesn't
live in the building, so has no idea or even cares about how cold it can get. On a normal day the temperature in the cold apartments barely reaches 65 degrees, and many get warm by turning on the gas stove. When it's very cold outside it's even worse in here.
Maybe this article will convince the landlord to have the boiler checked and do some upgrades- though I doubt it as that would cost money.

i live in colorado and its been - temps and we have boiler heat in the apts. but its cold and told managers and they said its because of the -temps and can't do anything about it... i can't believe this.. i'm sick of living like i'm in a refridge. is this wrong or am i being a terrible tenant? i'm 60 yrs old and cold

I didn't know what the advantages and disadvantages were to having a boiler versus an electric heating system. That definitely explains why my apartment is really hot and my friends apartment is so cold. I will have to ask our apartment manager what he can do to help the problem. It may be worth it to rent heating systems until the problems can be solved.

OMG my building has an old boiler that services 5 buildings that are part of a company and my apartment building is closer to the boiler system than some of the other buildings and is boiling temps and too hot and i cannot breathe and wake up entirely wet. i have to open the windows and the freezing cold comes on me and my 3 dogs which have breathing problems and trachael damage where they are hospitalized and on serious medical plan. what should i do since we are all sick and it is not getting better. i purchased my coop apartment a year ago and it was 850k for a one bedroom with high maintenance 2100 and this is a disaster!!! please advise me what to do since i have tried to speak with the management and the board and no one cares. i called the attorney general and 311 and no one responds either:(

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Cooperator.com is an online edition of The New York Cooperator newspaper. The publication serves the co-op and condo community with thousands of free articles on management, finance, maintenance and more...